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Some of you know may know Vinnie Rossie from my review of one of their products. Well, instead of complaining, Vinnie reached out to me and we built a great relationship. He is a genuinely nice guy.
Oh, before I forget, let me say that LP (and a bit of tape) dominates this show. Quite different than LA audio show for example. Even when digital source exist, many companies are opting for LP playback, much to my dismay.
Went to get lunch and the "CANJAM" area is next to it so I spent a few minutes there. First up is the new headphones from PSB. Some of you may know that as with Dr. Toole, Paul Burton is also a graduate of the NRC research facility. The press release for these headphones said that it created the sound of the room with headphones. Well, I found the sound disappointing. The first experience was what seemed like crackling. Paul replaced the cord and that got fixed but it still sounded stuffy and bloated to me.
Maybe with my own music and something better than a tablet they sound better. As it is, they did not impress at all sad to say.
I was excited to see a cable demo test with two identical headphones. So I sat there and did the AB test:
The aftermarket cable seemed to subtly sound better.
Well, later I heard from someone else that the stock cables were run unbalanced and the aftermarket ones balanced! So much for proper AB test if that is indeed the case. The cables went every which way so I could not see where the one went. I may go and verify later.
Japanese company "Final" was showing these electrostatic headphones. Sadly, I was not impressed at all. Even when using the fancy Chord Dave DAC, the sound was unnatural to me and not at all transparent like say, Stax. Worse yet the one on the right connected to Chord retailed for thousands of dollars.